Prague, June 20. AmCham members have elected nine Board members, and the AmCham Board has appointed Michal Chour of the Alcron Hotel as President and Milan Slapak of GE, Michal Nebesky of Citibank, Vaclav Novotny of Biogen and Sanjiv Suri of Zatisi Group as Vice Presidents.

“We have a strong and diverse group of leaders on the Board,” Chour told AmCham members at the General Assembly on Thursday. “Each member of the board brings a different expertise and different network to the table, and our plan is to work as a team to make this country a top ten economy in the EU."

Chour will focus on the Prague economic development. Slapak will focus on research and high-tech manufacturing. Novotny will focus on health care. Nebesky will focus on finance and macroeconomic issues. Suri will focus the Prague hospitality sector.

“We are very enthusiastic about the economic direction of the country, especially the new innovation strategy,” Slapak says. “We view our role as helping to turn the strategy into reality by making this the easiest place in the EU to do research and recruiting more major private investment into the public research institutes.”

Anargyrou-Nikolic has been appointed to head AmCham’s new business sustainability initiatives. Klimes has been appointed to lead AmCham’s Brno Council. Soucek will head AmCham’s community leadership initiative.

“Sustainability is an economic and social imperative for companies both large and small,” Anargyrou-Nikolic says. “We want AmCham to encourage the business community to take bigger steps toward a sustainable future, and to share best practices that will help all of us get there successfully.”

“Brno has become a primary European generator of new technology,” Klimes says. “Entrepreneurs and research labs have driven the economy fast and far, and now we need to make sure the infrastructure can develop at the same pace.”

“All around the globe we see an increasing distrust and frustration with our politics, and doubt and fear about our economies,” Soucek says. “Business needs to play a greater leadership role in restoring faith in our economic direction, and AmCham will be working with the many top managers in our membership to play a leadership role in their communities.”

For more information on AmCham activities, contact Weston Stacey at wstacey@amcham.cz.